Conventionally, spare tires have created design and storage problems in many vehicles, including pickup trucks. A spare tire for a pickup truck is typically hung underneath the pickup truck in a position below the truck bed. In order to access this spare tire, an operator of the pickup truck must typically crawl at least partially beneath the pickup truck in order to remove fasteners used to secure the spare tire to the pickup truck. It is accordingly difficult and messy to access such a spare tire. Furthermore, this conventional spare tire storage arrangement typically renders the spare tire subject to theft and/or environmental damage.
As one alternative, the spare tire can be placed upon the bed floor of a truck bed for storage. Although such storage would facilitate relatively convenient access to the spare tire by an operator, storage space for other cargo upon the bed floor would be considerably diminished. Furthermore, unless a truck cap or other protective device is associated with the truck bed, the spare tire would not likely be protected from theft and/or environmental damage.
Accordingly, there is a need for a spare tire storage arrangement on a vehicle (e.g., a pickup truck) that substantially protects the spare tire from theft and from environmental elements without reducing the storage capacity of the vehicle, and that facilitates simple and clean access to the spare tire by an operator of the vehicle.